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Costume jeweller Mijou Beller has been trading under the name from her seaside location near Cape Town, South Africa, for 12 years, but has incurred the wrath of the Milanese fashion label, Dolce & Gabbana.

WWD
report how Beller has been served with a lawsuit by the Italian brand, even though she has since modified the name of her store - which was unsurprisingly a hit with tourists photographing themselves before her shopfront - to simply, 'Banana.'

Beller has claimed that she cannot afford to fight the 100,000 Rand lawsuit (approx £8,140), and responded by rebranding her business to Banana.

Dolce & Gabbana's local legal representatives claim Beller ignored two previous warnings, the first one apparently issued six years ago.

In a bid to save herself and her business, which sees her fashion beads and wood into necklaces and bracelets, Beller has taken to Twitter to address designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana directly, writing: "Dear Stefano, please let us be. And visit us in Cape Town. I have always admired your famous sense of humor so present in your brand and in your designs. And although I appreciate that Dolce & Gabbana is a very successful commercial enterprise, I fail to understand why Dolce and Banana is a threat."

Somehow, 'Sweet and Banana', the literal English translation of Beller's handicraft store, doesn't have quite the same to ring to it.